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The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is to expand its forex products family, listing six new foreign exchange futures contracts in eastern European currencies in July. The move comes on the heels of two other initiatives in the foreign exchange market.

The new contracts will include dollar and euro crosses on the Polish zloty, Hungarian forint and Czech koruna. The contracts are scheduled to launch July 11 electronically and a day later on the trading floor. The six additional contracts will bring the Chicago Mercantile's foreign exchange contracts to 36. The exchange will also offer options on the new contracts.

Terry Duffy, Chicago Mercantile Exchange chairman, said: "As the economies of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic continue to grow significantly and further integrate into the global economy, the need for hedging the associated currency risk on this economic activity has also significantly increased. CME's new FX contracts provide the marketplace with an excellent new tool for managing that risk."

Earlier this week the exchange announced a deal with Reuters which is to provide currency traders with access to Chicago Mercantile's currency futures contracts over its dealing system.

On Tuesday the largest US futures exchange also announced an incentive pricing program for electronic foreign exchange trading for banks that are not currently Chicago Mercantile Exchange members.

The18-month programme fee will begin on June 1 and will enable non-member banks trading for their proprietary accounts to trade currency products on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's electronic trading platform for a combined cost of 44 cents per side - a 73% discount from current electronic trading and clearing fees.